One child, one place. Prime Minister François Legault pledged Thursday to create 37,000 child care spaces by 2025. If he achieves his goal, all parents’ needs would be met, in principle.
In announcing his “great project for families” at a press conference, the Prime Minister spoke of a historic moment. The site includes an action plan and a bill tabled Thursday morning by the Minister of Families, Mathieu Lacombe.
If the scenario announced Thursday works, the Legault government will therefore have taken seven years, from 2018 to 2025, and taken two terms to meet the needs of parents in terms of childcare services.
The child care network is grappling with a major crisis.
Under Caquista rule, the waiting list for a child care space has reached unprecedented heights, currently numbering more than 50,000 names. The network must also deal with a serious shortage of educators that is constantly increasing. The Ministry of the Family estimates that there is a shortage of around 17,800 educators to meet the needs.
Awaited for years, the government action plan contains 45 measures in total, including an increase in the tax credit for childcare expenses.
Bill number one presented by the Minister also creates for the Minister of Families the obligation to issue an invitation to submit a project for the development of a subsidized childcare service when he finds that the service offer in a territory given does not respond to the request.
In addition, the bill amends the mechanism for assessing the needs of educational childcare services in order to allow the Minister to determine the supply of childcare services necessary to meet demand in each region.
The bill also changes the process by which the Minister can allocate new places whose services are subsidized.
Quebec also wants to increase the maximum number of children admitted per facility and authorize temporary premises.
The rules for registering at the one-stop-shop for access to a day care center will also be modified, so as to give priority to children living in disadvantaged areas.
Further details will follow.